Page 376 - Chinese pottery and porcelain : an account of the potter's art in China from primitive times to the present day

2i8 Chinese Pottery and Porcelain

As to the antiquity of hall marks, it was not considered ana-

chronistic to cut one on a Han granary urn which is now in the British
Museum ; but unfortunately as the cutting was done after the ware
was baked it is now impossible to say at what period it was executed.

A Sung example is quoted in the Ni ku lu (written in the middle of

the sixteenth century) as inscribed on a Ting Chou vase in the
handwriting of the Mi family, viz., jen ho kuan tlftlll (Hotel of

Benevolence and Harmony). A similar mark similarly placed is

tl^^ jen ts'un fang (Hall of Benevolence), on a Tz'ii Chou jar

in the Eumorfopoulos Collection.

Hall marks on Ming porcelain are rare. There is, however, one
which occurs fairly often on late Ming porcelains of various

kinds, including pieces decorated in blue and blue and white,

underglaze red, blue and enamel colours, pierced designs and slip.

^ ^This is 2/^ fang chia ch'i, " beautiful vessel for the Jade Hall."

It is improbable that the yii fang was a factory name, as the
specimens so marked have little homogeneity. Giles's Dictionary tells

us that yii fang is a name for the Han Lin College at Peking, which
was so called in memory of Chou Chih-lin of the Sung dynasty, upon
whom the Emperor bestowed these two characters in admiration of
his qualities. From this we might infer that the wares so marked
were made for the Han Lin ; but why, one asks, in that case should
the examples in our collections be so many and so evidently of the
same period ? On the whole I prefer to regard the mark as of

general (and complimentary) significance, i.e. " beautiful vessel for

the home of pure worth," like another mark much affected on

late Ming porcelain Ju kuei chia chH ("fine vessel for the rich and

honourable ! ").

Hall marks are very frequent on the porcelains of the Ch'ing

dynasty, and enough are given below to illustrate their various

forms. Many of them are no doubt hall names of makers

and decorators, and as such belong to the category of artists'

signatures.

Special interest attaches to those hall marks which have been

identified as referring to pavilions in the precincts of the Imperial

Wepalace. are told by Bushell ^ that the " fashion of inscribing

upon porcelain made for the Imperial palace the name of the particular

pavilion for which it was intended seems to have begun in the reign

of Yung Cheng," and observation shows that these hall marks only

1 0. C. A., p. 79.